Hope everyone is enjoying their 2016 run up to Christmas so far! Whether it's just me, I am a massive fan of the build up over the actual day - any excuse to eat chocolate everyday is good enough for me. Unfortunately the build up to Christmas also means endless deadlines and essay writing for students, so instead of staying cosy in a toasty house with food and films I have relocated to the library. However, despite Christmas coming up, never have the words treat yourself featured more in my vocabulary than 50% off at missguided...

So with black friday deals coming in and my birthday just passing, I thought I'd post a collective haul of birthday gifts and that 50% I couldn't resist missing. Picture me sat in the library on a Friday afternoon, which is dedication in itself, and I get an email pop through from missguided. So there I am, ordering clothes, in the library.

All of these items are what I received for my birthday. The trainers are my new go to everyday as my Adidas Superstars are absolutely done in - I got these in the Asos sale for £45 so keep an eye out! I wanted the Nike leggings as a comfier alternative for during the day, as well as the jeans. It seems so strange wearing jeans without rips in the knees now as it's all I've got used to when they first came out! I kinda like my warm knees. I've also became obsessed with bodysuits, initially for nights out but this Malibu one looks so good tucked in jeans a checky shirt - despite the time of year!

As a newbie to mom jeans and culotte pants, I wanted to take advantage of the 50% off to test the water - and I love both, a lot! The mom jeans style I particularly like around my waist, so with a normal pair of high waisted Topshop jeans my aim is to wear crop tops during the day with it but am still a little conscious of it showing that belly of mine, but mom jeans are baggy enough to hide it and it's amazing! Similarly with the culottes, that tummy is hid with that flowing style we all know and love! In my head I wanted the culottes for a more casual wear, however teamed with a slinky black bralet I feel is going to make a great night out outfit. I have my winter ball coming up and am thinking some heels, statement jewellry, bralet and fab makeup will dress them right up!

I'd love to show a much bigger black friday haul but my bank balance simply won't allow it, even though I want everything! We'll just have to wait and see after Christmas when my parents Santa can pay for all those fab things this gal can't afford quite yet. If you've made it this far, thanks very much and I hope to see your beautiful face again soon!

I'm going to try keep this brief but fitting a crazy month of travelling round Europe in only so many words is going to be one hefty task! Grab your fav drink (Cafe Nero is currently giving you a free hot drink on O2 priority!), wrap in your warmest blanket in this cold Autumnal weather, and let's reminisce on summer 2016.

Being a university student means I have one long summer to fill in and one big student loan, so I of course have to take advantage! Me and 3 friends I met in my first year decided to buy a 30 day interrailing ticket to travel Europe. I couldn't recommend it enough, and would love to do it again on a different route! Travelling by train you get to see landscapes deep in the countryside of Europe you'd never see on a plane. One journey that stands out to me was from Budapest to Lake Bled and travelling through tiny villages in the Alps with incredible views of snowy mountains in the mid-July sun! Our seats had us 4 together, with wifi, so I had 6 blissful, uninterrupted hours of catching up on this years Love Island. I was on bloody cloud nine!

Being the stress heads we are, we planned everything to a T. Every train route was booked with reservations, every day planned with what to do and every hostel pre booked to ensure we had as jam-packed time as possible with minimal panic! This of course had its pros and cons. In places like Krakow and Prague which are relatively small, whilst we still enjoyed, 4 days in each place straight after the other was way too long in my opinion. Luckily they were the cheaper places so we had some amazing experiences on the bar crawls, met some cool people and ate some great food! But I feel if we didn't booked everything, we could've left these places earlier and came away with the same positive feeling we had for everywhere else, or spent longer in places we really loved.

Our first stop was Amsterdam. While we weren't greeted with the best weather it was still an amazing start to the trip! One of my biggest tips in planning your route would be to start here or more Western Europe when you have the most money - we spent waaaay too much in our first week. While here we walked the infamous Red Light District, viewed Ann Frank's house, visited Rijksmuseum and tried the best churros I've ever had - A big statement from a foodie like myself!

HOSTEL - Central Station Hostel. Wouldn't recommend, perhaps more as a layover place since in a room of 10, people mostly slept so the atmosphere was not great.

Next up, Berlin...

Our second place was Berlin. I absolutely loved it here! 2 of my friends are studying beginners German which was so unbelievably handy the amount we got lost in this city. We must have travelled up every tall building and got every view from above Berlin possible - including a stationary hot air balloon! My highlights of this place were Badeschiff which is the last photo you can see. One hungover morning after a night in the infamous Tresor club, we headed early to this man-made pool in the middle of the city to recover only in the best way possible! I had the best cheese toastie that day. Another highlight, quite the contrast, was visiting the Berlin Holocaust Memorial - As a history student, Berlin was insane for topping up my European history. This memorial is free, which I couldn't believe, and was all personal stories of holocaust survivors and their families. It was so emotional; sometimes I feel we all become somewhat desensitised to the Holocaust learning about it so much throughout school but the personalisation of this memorial really hit home for me.

HOSTEL: City Berlin Hostel. Would definitely recommend - after requesting a 6 bed room we ended up with one to ourselves which was heaven after Amsterdam's ordeal! They had so much handy tourist info and was in a good location for the main tourist spots! 34 degree heat though...

Next up, Munich...

Munich was definitely my favourite city we visited. We used airbnb this time which was luxury having a modern apartment to ourselves after the cramped night train there! We dumped our stuff, hired bikes straight away and rode around the English Gardens in the late summer sun to explore our new home for the next 3 days. Home to Oktoberfest, the history of the city was so interesting, shaping their culture today. There was so many nice places to eat and the city gave an overall chilled atmosphere! I am already dying to return but perhaps with more money this time as we were really living that poor interrailing life by destination 3...

HOSTEL: Airbnb apartment - would thoroughly recommend, while our host wasn't the most accommodating, I really enjoyed the whole experience of using Airbnb!

Next up, Prague...

We found Prague extremely hit and miss, unfortunately. So many people we met said Prague was their fav destination, but whether we were just doing it wrong, we just didn't feel that. The train there was unreal, enjoying an unexpected cabin to ourselves we were ready to tackle a new city! But we arrived feeling stressed in a country who's language, currency and location we barely knew, with customer service in the train station being disgusting (considering it's full of tourists!) I had low expectations. However, the bar crawls were unbeatable - v v fun! If I ever returned it would definitely be for a long drinking weekend no problem.

HOSTEL - Little Quarter Hostel. Would definitely recommend, staff were lovely, very clean, amazing location and all you can eat breakfast for 5 euros!

So there you have the first 4 locations of my interrailing trip. Well done if you've made it this far! I was looking to do a full post on all 8 but underestimated how much I wanted to say - even this was so edited down. If you have any questions or would like me to go in any more detail in any things we experienced then please don't hesitate to say, I'd be more than happy to! Have you been to any of these places already, or interrailing?

It's a saturday morning. After a friday night out getting slightly tiddly to release the stress of a long week, you feel as if death has made an early appearance. Your head's banging, mouth is dry, and the only way to feel a tiny bit more like a functioning human is food. Enter The Butterfly Cabinet. Located in High Heaton, a suburb of Newcastle infamous for students, this independent cafe is the perfect indulgence of all day breakfasts, home made burgers, chunky chips, massive sandwich's and all for such good prices - ideal for a struggling student like myself who goes out too much with too little money!

It's such a quirky little place, all with vintage interior and mismatched items which I love. The homeliness of it doesn't make slouching in your baggiest clothes ready to expand your belly double its size seem so guilty. I just feel dem good vibes. If you go at a typical brunch sort of time you could be waiting in a queue - it is a small lil place with huge popularity so peak times can be manic! However when I went at this point there was only us and one other table in near closing at 5pm; ashamed to say that was the earliest me and my friends could get out of bed after a v eventful and messy night haha!

The food itself is bloody gorgeous. On the picture here I got the USA breakfast. I'm such a pancake fiend, any place I go that serves pancakes and they're straight on my plate, so a breakfast with pancakes, hashbrowns, sausages and bacon is my living dream! A mighty 4 pancakes I feel is extremely generous, and if like me you have no limits with the maple syrup, getting more was no problem! I paid £7.50 for this which is one of the more expensive meals on the whole menu to be fair. Additionally the staff are lovely, very down to earth, no pretension - they just know you're there for a good feed!

If you're in Newcastle and looking for some good food definitely give this a go! It's near Heaton Park as well which, on a nice day, is the perfect walk around to settle your stomach after a big meal. This is my kinda food down to a T so if you have any suggestions (anywhere in the world!) let me know in the comments! Also, what's your hangover cure?!

Welcome to my first ever blog post! I say ever, this could potentially be my 5th time starting a blog. 14 year old me knew from the get-go that writing in a tiny space of the internet was for me! As an escape from the realities of being a 19 year old undergrad History student, my aim is to use this blog as a place to ramble about all my likes, dislikes, passions and experiences with the hope that there's some of you out there who can relate to a gal reaching serious parts of life with no serious plans...

Since we're now past half way of 2016 and very much in the high spirits of summer and travelling, I thought sharing some of my travelling necessities would be a great way to start. I've recently returned from a month long trip interrailing around Europe, so after packing and unpacking every 3 days for a month, finding my must-needs to survive an 11 hour night train became quickly very easy!

Interrailing was by far one of the best months of my life, if not the best, which I'd recommend to anyone! The interrailing ticket is so easy to use, and in my opinion, the cheapest and most efficient way to travel Europe. I'd like to go more in depth in future posts about interrailing, so if you have any questions or preferences just shout out in the comments!

- The Girl on the Train WHSmith (buy 1 get 1 half price - you just have to!)

- Interrailing ticket www.myinterrail.co.uk

- Watch Olivia Burton rose gold

- Passport

- Travel Pillow

- Fujifilm FinePix S6800

These never forget's aren't necessarily essential for everyone, but pretty damn important when it comes to most cases. Obviously your own choice of book is allowed, but I do feel obliged to order everyone to read this book as it totally blew my mind! The film comes out in October, FYI, so get reading! Since I was spending days at a time on trains, occupying myself became a priority, however because this book was that good I got through it so quick and spent the rest of my holiday browsing just about every Spotify playlist ever created. Absolutely vital - my life has been transformed since getting it.

Additionally a travel pillow was something I'd never considered much when going away but this was a life saver when it came to sleeping in the dingiest hostel beds and trains! However my most recommended item is definitely the travel wallet - what an absolute star. On a trip needing so many confirmations, details, payments and all that serious stuff you don't like to think of when you're on your hol, this kept everything structured to ensure I could be as stress free as possible (while tricking myself into believing I'm actually an organised person...)! In addition to this, simple things like a watch and vaseline which everyday me takes for granted, became such a must-have while travelling.

The beauty essentials!

- Palmer's Cocoa Butter

- Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lip Balm

- Vita Liberata pHenomenal 2-3 Week Tan - Medium

- Garnier Ambre Solaire sun lotion

- Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer - light

- Garnier BB Cream - light

- Benefit Hoola Bronzer

- Benefit Brow Zings

- Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy Perfume

I cannot recommend Palmer's Cocoa Butter enough. While it's not the cheapest aftersun around, the benefit's are so good I have no problem shelling out the extra couple pound for this. I'm sure we've all been lobster burnt at some point meaning days of painful sleeping and, y'know, general movement, but this is so fast acting it prevents any sunburn pain! It encourages a tan with the cocoa elements, helping a very pale gal like me out. Last but not least, it smells delicious and even lead to me meeting a group of friends in my Budapest hostel because they loved it so much. Cocoa Butter makes friends!

My daily essentials at home include Benefit's bronzer and brow zings so these guys were undoubtedly going to feature abroad also. Together with the Garnier BB Cream made my daily face for the month, and it did my skin a world of wonders! With the BB Cream's so light coverage, it meant I could use it throughout the month despite how tanned I went (which wasn't much!) and also match with the Vita Liberata fake tan. I'd heard good things about this fake tan and when Boots had an offer of £25 instead of £37, which I'd never usually pay for fake tan, I bit the bullet and bought it. Now I wish I bought a couple it's that good, so natural looking and long lasting - what else do you want?! My problem with fake tan can be that it doesn't make me tanned enough, then if I put more on I look similar to a Fanta orange, but this one made me look v tanned and natural! I faked it until I bloody made it to my friends...

I hope this has helped at least one of you lovely lot. Let me know your summer plans in the comments - go on, make me jealous!

Jessica Jayne X

Hello

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Hey you, I'm Jessica Jayne - or Jess. A 19 year old student from north east England. You've made it here - enjoy!